After the crushing victory over arch rivals Pakistan, India meets West Indies in their second match of the league round. After the initial loss in the practice game against Sri Lanka, India has now won 2 consecutive games against England and Pakistan. On the others hand West Indies won both their practice matches and are on a high themselves. Both the teams are riding a wave of momentum and the match is promising to be an exciting contest.

Looking at the Indian team, it looks way more settled now then it was at the start of the tournament. The spinners have come to the party and have made the bowling attack considerably stronger. The spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin have bowled well consistently and on the tracks that are offering considerable amount of turn; they can be deadly against any batting attack. Even the pace duo of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami have been bowling well within themselves, even though they would look on improving their efforts in the death overs.

The batting looks formidable again with the return in form of Suresh Raina and also the openers showing some sort of decency in their performance in the game against Pakistan. The only matter of concern would be the performance of Yuvraj Singh, who failed with the bat and the ball in the last game. The middle order is looking strong with Kohli and Raina in supreme form at the moment. And we always have Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to be the finisher that he is.

West Indies on the other hand are a team full of match winning all rounders. Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne bravo, Darren Sammy, Dwayne smith etc are all capable of turning a match on its head with the bat while they can also contribute exceptionally well with the ball. The bowling department specially looks strong with spinners of the like of Sunil Narine and in their ranks. Even though the fast bowlers can be erratic at times, when they get it right, they are really hard to get away.

The batting starts with the name Christopher Henry Gayle and that itself is enough to scare an opposition. Gayle got out after getting starts in the practice games and if the Indians don’t get him early then the game is as good as lost for them, because when this man gets going there is hardly any delivery that won’t go to the boundary. Gayle has able support in the form of Sammy and Samuels, both of whom have been in good form lately. They also boast of big hitters in the back end of the innings with names like André Russell, Dwayne bravo and Dwayne smith.

It comes down to how well the Indian bowlers bowl to the west Indian batsmen. The Indian batting line up with Virat Kohli in their ranks is capable of chasing down any total that is put up on the board, so if the Indian bowlers can keep the west Indian batsmen down to a reasonable total, except the Indians to come out as victorious.